same problem…

I’m not a teacher but I do have to say that my child’s school, Saints Peter and Paul, uses this great program that incorporates music and visual aid to help Adam learn. He’s in second grade and loves these educational videos that teach: math, science, social science, and english. I think the offical educational site is: and I asked my child’s teachers about the creditability of their program and they said it met the standards for teaching children.

I’m not sure what you want to know specifically. Your question is kind of broad. You might want to narrow it done and do some research.
I would recommend you get some professional development. Take a class, go to a good workshop, read a professional book. I just read Reading IS Seeing by Jeffrey Wilhelm and it is about visualizing techniques to use with students to foster comprehension. It was excellent and I got some wonderful ideas from it. Also, check out some teacher chat boards. I use one on teacher.net and I get some really great ideas from there.
You have to take a good look at your curriculum and what is out their for research and find things that will work for your grade and what ever standard you are trying to teach specifically.

I always plan my lessons with the idea that there are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners all mixed up in my room. There has to be something from each of those areas in each lesson so that at some point they get instruction the way they learn best. For example, if I am teaching commas in a series I would talk with lists and point out how I pause slightly where the commas are; I would write some sentences on chart paper with words in a series so they can look back at it later; I would also write sentences with words in a series on sentence strips and give them macaroni to glue in place. Then at center time, give the opportunity to practice within each mode. After you do this a few times it becomes second nature.

I’m a 2nd grade teacher in Virginia and have some ideas, however, I need to know what state you are in so I can look up your standards. I’m sure we teach different things in science and social studies, but maybe something overlaps. Please edit or add to your question regarding your state.

It is kinda hard to answer your question as it is very broad and also vague. I have taught second grade for several years in a row. The most important thing to keep in mind is that their attention span is so limited, you need to break up the lesson into smaller pieces. Even little things like pair share, or sharing with their tables, can help break up the lesson. It also depends on what kind of students you have. Most classes are a wide range of abilities, language backgrounds, etc. Keeping the lesson visual, and anything where they are moving or talking, works great. There are a ton of math games available, and kids love these. They also love science experiments, I have my students work in partners. The best resources I have ever found is fellow teachers. You can adapt their lessons to suit your teaching style and your students. Enchantedlearning.com has some great stuff, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. Ask other teachers where they get their ideas. Remember, we got into teaching because we like to help others, even fellow teachers. Good luck to you. I know my answer wasn’t specific,but I hope it was at least a little helpful.

Like most of the comments have said, it would be helpful if you narrowed your question some more. But generally, some things that have worked well in my 2nd grade class are literacy centers and centers that follow up on lessons, group projects as assessment pieces, science experiments, math games and the use of manipulatives, and partner work, among many other things. Perhaps if you name one specific area (seatwork, science lessons, centers, etc.) or a topic (comprehension, decoding, addition/subtraction, geography, etc.) you’d like to make improvements in I could give you specific examples or resources to refer to. Teachers are filled with great ideas and there are tons of professional resources out there, you just have to ask the right questions.

This isn’t a lesson plan; it’s more of a philosophy. Try designing lessons and activities around things of interest and importance to the students. Give them ways to use the knowledge and skills that you’re teaching them in their lives today.

When you’re teaching math, use counting exercises about things they’d want–and possibly could–buy in the store. Talk about candy, juice boxes, Pokemon cards, whatever they’re into. If they can see some relevance between their lives and what you’re teaching them, not only will they be more interested, they will retain more knowledge for longer periods.

If you’re stuck trying to figure out what the kids would like to learn about, ask them! They might be immature but they know themselves better than we’ll ever know.

Why do we have to have lesson plans and why do we have to coat dry cake with frosting that rots the teeth to make them learn.

Science, let them look through a microscope, even it’s just a $30 cheapo.

Go to Edumunds scientific (what, you don’t want to invest our your students future) and buy a few things.

Two thermomeners. One has a wet paper or cloth wick over the bulb the other doesn’t, you spin them around for a few minutes and look at the temperature reading.

WET BULB
DRY BULB

Then you get a chart and show them how you find REALATIVE HUMIDITY

(I unschooled myself on this at age 8 with a $20 weather kit)

You didn’t learn this in college, sue!

Barometer. Costs $20 or $25 dolllars at Edmunds

Have them keep track of it each day

FALL barometer BAD WEATHER

Rising BAROMETER good weather

Get a cloud chart. TAKE THEM OUTSIDE (ok you’ll have to get PERMISSION from the PRINCIPAL for that one)

Have them look at clouds and identify them from the chart.

Draw the solar system to a “scale” and poisition the distances of the planets to a “scale” (you can do simple division, can’t you)

Newtons laws

Get some ball bearings or one of those things with balls hanging from levers and show them how ONE BALL on one side of six balls when IT COLLIDES with the balls makes ONE BALL jump up on the other side.

Do it with too balls.

ACTION and REACTION (that’s rudiementary Physics)

LET THEM DO IT THEMSELVES

Let them TRY IT

Camera OBSCURA

Get a BIG BOX (one that fits over their little heads) cut a hole at the top. Put some aluminum foil over it. Put a pinhole into that foil

Cover the opposite wall with WHITE PAPER

Cut a hole through the bottom so their head fits in.

Let them point the back side (aluminum foil and pin hole) out the window and look at the image projected inside the box.

Geography

Put up a MAP of the WORLD with countries drawn in with lines

Give them EACH one COUNTRY

Then let them play MAKE THE PUZZLE WORK

Let them FIND where on that MAP their piece of the Puzzel fits

Then tell them about that country, it’s name, what it’s place is in the world, what they do there.

It’s gonna take some work (what, you not into work, then don’t expect THEM to be into work!)

Im not sure why everyone is giving you such a hard time. I totally understand your question!!

Well i would say try and use stuff they can see and touch and taste even!! Make the classroom environment more interactive.

Give students an idea and let them work in groups to come up with something on that topic, it gets their minds going and they know there is no wrong answer so they are free to give opinion.Later on when correcting then you can give them solid information and answer q’s.

The more real stuff you bring into the classroom the more exciting the lesson becomes and its something they will remember for a long long time.

Use the information you have on these subjects and make them into puzzles which groups can put together or maybe have a list of phrases in one side and names the other and get them to match the phrase to the name.

You could also do role plays and make them act out a plant and one can be the stem etc etc. Use the students and props and pictures. They all go a long way in childrens understanding and memory!!

All the best!! hope i helped!!

I have a little box that has index cards in it. The type you use for recipes. What I do is divide it into subjects, for example, seasonal. Then I jot down the idea on the card. One idea per card. The problem was that I had so many resources and I had no way to organize them. A good source are the Teacher Helper magazines or worksheet magazines.Good Apple is a good source as well as edhelper and abcteach. This year I developed a binder that is organized seasonally or monthly that drills basic skills. For more tips on second grade, please join my second grade teachers club: